The state of public education from a Philadelphia public school teacher's perspective...

Friday, January 3, 2014

Profits Over Pupils: Philadelphia's True Priorities

2013 is gone and, as far as public educators in the City of Philadelphia are concerned, good riddance. The worst budget crisis the School District of Philadelphia has ever faced is now last year's news.

Honestly, however, who can blame the city or state for vastly underfunding the education of our youth? After all, this budget crisis is a result of the greatest recession our city and state have seen in over a generation. A brief look at how Philadelphia's publicly traded Fortune 500 corporations fared in 2013 shows the dire economic situation our city is in, resulting in a School District underfunded to the tune of $304 million.

Cigna (NYSE:CI) climbed from $54 to $86 per share for an astronomical return on profits of nearly 58%.

Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) began trading publicly last month after its IPO and has already jumped an astounding 35% climbing from $20 to $26 per share.

Sunoco Logistics (NYSE:SXL) saw its shares jump from approximately $50 to $75 for a 52-week change of +39%. [Sunoco, formerly the largest corporation based in Philadelphia (NYSE:SUN) is currently a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE:ETP)]

2013, however, wasn't a bad year for all educators in the city - just for those who choose to work with society's poorest and most vulnerable members. While the School District demands that we public school teachers take a 13% pay-cut, make 13% contributions to our healthcare, and forego all cost-of-living adjustment until 2017, other educational institutions in the city such as the University of Pennsylvania gave their professors and administrators exorbitant raises. PENN's President, for example, was given a whopping 43% raise in 2013 and now earns nearly $2.1 million... God forbid these educators who sacrifice themselves in order to mold the privileged future Wall Street gluttons of Wharton should not be properly compensated.

David Cohen, by the way, is also the same person who recommended that Philadelphia public school teachers make the aforementioned 13% concessions in order to help solve the District's budget issues while he brokered a deal with Harrisburg. I suppose that, unlike PENN, he doesn't think we have the best public school teachers in Philadelphia -- nor should their salary "reflect that reality." What qualifies Cohen to make recommendations about Philadelphia's public schools? Well, apart from giving Gutmann a 43% raise and demanding teachers take a 13% paycut, here's what else he accomplished in 2013:

As Vice President of Comcast, he cashed in an annual salary of $16.2 million (Pulling in that kind of money, I'm sure he's a public school parent with vested interest.)

He held a Republican fundraising event at that same Mt. Airy home to help kick-off Governor Corbett's re-election campaign. Who cares about political ideology when you have the money to pay off both sides?

So, where does that leave us teachers in 2014? Should public school educators be as optimistic about the coming year as the rising stock prices of our numerous Fortune 500 corporations? Not so fast. As those entities earning record profits continue to shirk their responsibilities, the District is forced to balance its budget on the backs of the only individuals they have some sort of control over - their teachers. The demands made upon the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is degrading to the point of humiliation (you can view the full list HERE). Teachers have urged their union leadership not to budge as contract talks drag on, or there will be hell to pay.

At least there's one thing to look forward to in 2014 - the School District has recently announced that its 2013-14 deficit of $304 million will most likely climb by yet another $100 million. So what's the good news? Well, it looks like there is no end in sight for the gains of Philly's Wall Street giants and the exorbitant salaries their executives pull in... I'm sure one of them will step forward, start paying the same amount of taxes as the rest of us, and do their civic duty for the betterment of society as a whole.